


Of Slivers And Golds

by Xx_Zealous_xX



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Technology, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Auto-Responder - Freeform, Bees, Brain Damage, Computers, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Half-Dead Sollux, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Mituna's Accident, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pesterlog(s) (Homestuck), Possible Character Death, Pre-Accident Mituna, Psionics, Quadrant Confusion, Slow Burn, Technology, Trauma, Trolls
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-28 16:54:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15053660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xx_Zealous_xX/pseuds/Xx_Zealous_xX
Summary: -"It was only a few seconds later that his husktop started blaring obnoxiously. Bright warnings burst along the screen, and he could hear the hum of his bees, once a soothing white noise, escalate into a violent thrumming as they tried to keep up with the sudden input. “If thith fucker giveth me a viruth, I’m gonna be pitthed.” The drone of his bees amped up another pitch, and Sollux set his shoulders before letting his fingers dance rapidly over the keyboard. Mmm... Didn't look like a virus, but whatever this thing was, it was determined on fucking up all his hard work."-





	1. Mostly Monochrome

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> //This time on, 'Will Zealous Actually Finish A Story?', we get a glimpse at a spur of the moment fic that was derived from an rp prompt. But anyways, a few things to provide a bit background. The time period is a bit iffy, but the location is the meteor after Sollux died, in that weird half death phase. It's sort of an au and sort of not. Another thing, is I'm working off the idea that psionics are technically blind. Thanks to Folkyl, and the concept of voidrot, instead of eyes, psionics have energy which fills the space where their eyes would be. This leads to a sort of echolocation system, and subsequently how psionics 'see' in this story. One last thing, is that I'm going to mostly use canon relationships, but a few pairings of my own will be added to blend everything out smoother. Sorry for rambling, congrats if you stuck around, and enjoy!

The brush of his spindly hand over the old cardboard boxes sent dust into the air, and consequently into his lungs.

Sollux burst into a coughing fit, waving violently at the air with his free hand, as the other was currently occupied with keeping a bundle of junk tucked carefully under his arm. They began to shift with the violent motions of his body, and it became a race to scramble for the door while hacking his lungs out while simultaneously trying not to drop anything.

The end of a heavy cord hit the ground with a ‘thunk’, near catching on his ankle as he moved as semi briskly away from the floating particles. Grumbling under his breath and trying to stifle any more coughs as best he could, gentle black and white light encompassed his form. Tingles ran over his slate grey skin, gentle jolts of energy easily lifting him from the floor. Half fueled psionics glowed within his eye sockets, jumping out to join the whirl of force as he carefully albeit awkwardly shifted the load he carried into both his arms.

A jerk of his fingers sent the door above sliding back into place, concealed perfectly with the wall.

The seamless blend was the reason why the hidden area was just recently found, and the only reason keeping him from the hopefully interesting things inside.

Well, in all honesty, there were probably plenty of other rooms hidden within the depths of the meteor, but he wasn’t interested in pursuing too any more probably dangerous endeavors. He had only had little time to investigate the one room as it was before dust, mites, spiders, and other nasty shit was enough to deter him until he could get rid of the mess, but he had escaped with lungs intact and a bag or two and some old looking tech at least.

His semi dead white gaze flickered over the bland darkened hallways, dual ears pricked as if aiding him in tracking the way back to his room.

It was easy to become lost, yet thankfully easier to find his way.

The weight in his arms was becoming heavy and uncomfortable, but he didn’t want to push his psionics any further than he already was. They were wound tight, and he didn’t want to accidently short circuit them, as that would mean he would have to trek back instead.

So now, as tempting as it was, he was forced into keeping everything precariously balanced within his grasp.

Thankfully it didn’t take long until he reached a large open room that was faintly lit with glow worms and old algae. The speckles of green and yellow were the only things to light up solid grey plates scattered over the rocky floor. Only the echo of his snapping energy greeting him, room highlighted in blacks and whites, eyes carefully narrowed to peer at the dim glow.

It was in a rush of sudden movement after, he stepped over a plate emblazoned with his sign, that he was transported to his room.

Clutter was what greeted him, and a lapse in his psionics from the teleportation added to the clutter, as he toppled to the floor roughly and dropped all he held by accident.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…”

Muffled cursed were lisped aloud, pushing himself to his knees, hands latching onto one of the fallen bags, hoping that the crunch he heard hadn’t been anything important breaking.

Cocking his head to the side, his claws scraped annoyingly at the zipper opened it, hands dipping into the old cloth bag.

To his surprise, inside was only two things.

A mass of rough metal coil, and a somehow familiar helmet so annoyingly bright it jarred his senses.

Ache forming at the back of his skull, he carefully pressed his psionics outwards, the tendrils of energy jumping and combing over the oddly shaped helmet, thin brows furrowing at the detection of technology embedded inside.

Thin lips pursed, Sollux carefully rose into a standing position, taking the bag with him, and navigating his way over to his desk to set it down.

Empty energy drinks and papers alike were swept to the side, clattering loudly and sending his ears flattening to his skull.

Oversized fangs worried at the inside of his lip till the bright tang of blood greeted him, fishing out the length of surprisingly light coil from inside the bag. It was too rough against the calloused pads of his fingers. Near painful even when a loop caught against the inside of two fingers as he was forced to work carefully to untangle it from the helmet.

A leg reached back to catch the edge of his rolling chair, tugging it over until he was able to lower into it. It squeaked softly under him, the protest growing louder when he had to rock back in order to drop the tangle of coil to the ground.

Next came to the too bright object which panged at his senses.

With a rustle of material and that tap of his nails against the surface of the helmet, it was tugged free.

His psionics scattered over the insides automatically, while manually flipping it over, and he could feel the texture shifting to something thinner than the main material. It was scratched and a bit dented, but unmistakably a sort of visor. The straps tapped against his wrists with each movement, mentally combing through the electromagnetic signals he was receiving.

The technology was old. Incredibly old. That much was gathered. But judging by the powerful output, it was still functional. And acting on instinct alone, he knew that he had to boot the old thing up and see if his suspicions were true.

Blindly groping along his desk, he managed to snag a few cords, subsequently tugging his husktop a bit closer as well.

With well practiced ease, the goldblood began to plug everything into place, popping the cords into the correct ports, and somewhat successfully doing the same along the inside of the helmet.

It wasn’t long until a little crackle greeted him, before a series of sharp beeps announced activation. He wasn’t sure if everything was connected properly, as the two opposing technologies weren’t completely compatible, but this was the best that could be done at the moment.

Knowing his luck, there were probably more reliable systems of transmission in the other bags he had brought or back in the room from earlier, but screw that. He was too far along now to stop.

It was only a few seconds later that his husktop started blaring obnoxiously.

Bright warnings burst along the screen, and he could hear the hum of his bees, once a soothing white noise, escalate into a violent thrumming as they tried to keep up with the sudden input.

“If thith fucker giveth me a viruth, I’m gonna be pitthed.”

The drone of his bees amped up another pitch, and Sollux set his shoulders before letting his fingers dance rapidly over the keyboard.

Mmm... Didn't look like a virus, but whatever this thing was, it was determined on fucking up his hard work.

And that was to put things easily.

Whatever it was, was content on burrowing itself through the harddrive of his husktop as quick as possible.

Sollux’s lanky form was wound taut, muscles tense as he tried to stop the damn bug. And it was harder than one would expect. He was used to unforeseen circumstances, and in result dealing with them, but this was too much too quick.

Throwing down firewalls and looping circuits of code into circles, it took far too long to back whatever it was into a corner. It took even longer to reroute the system back through itself, in an infinite loop to trap it.

This would probably burn a few files of his, but it wasn’t anything that he couldn’t dig back up and bring back to the surface. A few automatic plugs would solve the problem practically on it’s own too.

Sollux let out a soft huff of air, as everything suddenly all processes stopped.

Warily, he leaned back in his old chair, peering past the red blue lenses of his glasses to asses the situation upon hand. It seemed as soon as the virus had appeared, it had simply vanished into thin air.

“What the hell are you…” Was the soft murmur.

A loud ping from Trollian jolted him out of his concentrated stupor. Now was certainly not the time.

Wary to add a few more backups, he dragged the cursor down to the little Trollian icon and clicked on it. The handles of most of his friends were dull, but for some reason, his own was lit up.

Thinking it was a bug coming from the sudden surge of activity through the system, he closed, and reopened the app.

But no, it didn’t seem to be a bug either.

‘twinArmageddons’, was still alight.

So with a bit of trepidation, he clicked on his own icon, baffled at the text that had appeared.

twinArmageddons is an idle chum!

TA: Hey there! N11ce try a22h0le, but 11'm already 11n211de all 0f y0ur 2h11t eheheheh

TA: [Cl11ck here f0r n00d2](http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/325/934/060.png)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> //Kudos and comments water my crops.


	2. Shades Of Saffron

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> //MmMMm In which troll erotic movie titles are incredibly hard to write. Quirks too. They're awful. That's about it. Oh, and thank you to those who left kudos and comments! It honestly made my day to see such sweet messages, and it's really is touching to know that people enjoy my work!

Sheer and utter bafflement was clearly plastered over his features, and reflected right back at him from the bright screen of his husktop. His brows were furrowed tightly, with worried lines etching into his skin. Black and white orbs flickered to and fro, trying to gain sense of things, but no matter how hard he stared, he couldn’t seem to work out the meaning of the large ‘YOU TRIED’ star.  It simply glared back at him if anything. 

It was just blatant reminder of how fucked he was. 

Apparently the goldblood took too long trying to ponder the situation, as another loud ping echoed from his husktop.

TA: Aw c0me 0n, 11 kn0w y0u’re there

TA: Unle22 y0u l11ke

TA: D11ed

TA: 11 gue22 fa11nt11ng 112 an 0pt110n tw0. B0th are k11nd 0f w11mpy th0ugh dude eheh

The thought of someone managing to hack into his system to pull this off was practically unthinkable. He had his whole system under tight lock and key, so it was improbable that someone had managed to bypass everything. 

He was the best coder he knew. 

Yet at the little worrying nagging at the back of his thinkpan, he exited out of Trollian with a few clicks in order to check and make sure everything was still up and running correctly. While he was at it, he started up a little diagnostics routine which would break down the thing if it was a virus like he had originally suspected. 

This is what he got for sticking things into suspicious objects.

The headache that had begun to pulse at the back of his skull was merely growing with each dead end and at each chime of Trollian. 

Lifting the hand not settled on his mouse, Sollux abruptly dug the ends of his forefinger and thumb into the bridge of his nose. 

Pain flickered along his nose and forehead, gentle sparks of white jumping into the air at the action. His dual toned glasses were stirred slightly, and he nudged them back into place with a slight grimace. 

Annoyed at the loud pinging, the male went and quickly switched the volume off his husktop. 

This was too much. 

His pan was racing, struggling to come up with answers to the dilemma, yet every path led to a dead end. 

Then that’s when it hit him. 

Lip twitching and throat rattling with a few sharp irritated clicks, Trollian was reopened. 

TA: Uh. 2h11t are y0u really dead? 11f 20, that’2 a 2hame. We had s11m11lar ta2te2 11n a l0t 0f th11ng2

TA: 0kay 11 l11ed

TA: The s11m11lar th11ng2 m02tly c0n2112t 0f p0rn

TA: L11ke h0ly 2h11t br0

TA: And 11 qu0te

TA: ‘A C0NCUPU2C11ENT 2cene 11n Wh11ch A Fra11l Br0nzebl00d Tr11e2 And Fa11l2 t0 2educe A H11ghbl00d And Return2 T0 H112 2hared H11ve2tem 11n D112tre22 Ju2t 11n T11me F0r H112 V110LETBL00D Br00dmate T0 2tep 11n A2 An Unexpected Mate2pr11t Bef0re The Dr0ne2 Arr11ve And Where The Tw0 Vac11ll11tate Up0n Real11z11ng The Br00dmate H11ghbl00d2 ATTRACT11VE 2TRENGTH AND 11NCRED11BLY LARGE BULGE’ 

TA: H0t

TA: 69/69 

TA: Wa11t 2h11t 11 f0und a better 0ne

TA:  ‘A 2cene 11n Wh11ch TW0 F11erce Ruthle22 H11ghbl00d Male2 0verpower and Pa11l A Meek Helple22 Yet DE2PERATE Ru2tbl00d 11n 2pade2 And 200n After 112 C0mf0rted By The11r M11dbl00d D11am0nd W11th CL02E UP PAP2, Ju2t F0r Them B0th To 2uddenly Real11ze H0w They Are 11ncred11bly Flu2hed F0r Each0ther’

TA: 11 hereby pledge tw0 2upp0rt y0ur k11nk11ne22

TA: ‘A 2cene 11n Wh11ch A M112chev110u2 Tealbl00d C0pulate2 R0UGHLY and BUCKETLE22LY W11th A Br0wnbl00ded Wretch 11n Hateful 2pade2 And 112 20meh0w CAUGHT 11n The Meal Nutr11t110n Bl0ck By the 2ludgebl00d2 Blue Hued Flu2hcru2h Who Engage2 11n Reckle22 Yet 2UCCE22FUL Aus2p11c110us2 Behav110r’

TA: Aw d0e2 20me0ne have cal11g11n0u2 i22ue2?

TA: 0kay n0w 11’m b0red

TA: G0nna g0 l00k ar0und 20me m0re and maybe acce22 y0ur camera tw0 2ee 11f y0u’re actually dead 0r n0t

TA:  0kay ha ha very funny kk

TA: Time t0 cut it the fuck out

TA: H0w the hell did you manage t0 figure out my passw0rd?

TA: Didn’t kn0w you had it in y0u with those subpar c0ding skills and all

Sollux awaited the denial or acceptance of his words, yet knew, and distantly hoped, that it had to be true. Only Karkat could have perhaps gotten his password to achieve this atrocious prank.

Some ends didn’t quite add up, but there was nothing he could do about that. 

Hopefully an explanation would be given. And oh boy, in a matter of seconds, an explanation he did get.

But it wasn’t what he was expecting at all.

TA: KK? Y0u mean Karkat Vanta2, the 0ne w11th the fucked up bl00d that type2 11n all caps r11ght?

TA: W0w alr11ght

Baffled, the bright text continued to appear on screen before he had a chance to reply.

TA: G00d gue22, but y0u are 11nc0rrect mr w0nderful ta2te 11n p0rn

TA: 11’m an A11

TA: 2h11t

TA: An ayy eye

TA: There we g0

What. 

The only thing that could register, was complete, what, for a few heartbeats. Any curiosity about the odd helmet he had found, had been replaced with confusion instead. 

His spindly hands hovered anxiously above the keyboard, harsh vocal clicking dissolved into a confused hum that complimented that of his now properly functioning bees.

TA: What the fuck

His fingers followed the train of his mental path, and the message was sent before he knew it. 

An AI? This complex?

And hidden tucked away in some old helmet no less. It had to be a joke. Someone was just messing with him. He would even accept the possibility of it all being a simple dream, if not for the fact that he was still sightless as ever. A blessing and a curse as the arrival at an answer did nothing to solve the problem before him.

With teeth grit tightly together, the goldblood leaned back in his old chair. 

It creaked again softly at the shift in his weight, and even more so when one long long was crossed over the other. His knee began a quick bounce, a restless tic, before fueling all his excess energy into stretching his gently crackling psionics outwards across his desk. 

He really needed to organize his room at some point. 

Scratch that, he really needed to organize his life. 

Tongues of energy combed over the exterior of the nearby helmet before dipping inside in a cool trickle once more, a mental list swirling through his thoughts. 

His tight lipped frown tipped further down into a silent snarl, ripping his psionics away to instead snag a nearly empty drink from the corner of his desk and tug it to himself. Sollux gulped down a few mouthfuls of the bitter tang as his attention refocused on the incoming messages. 

TA: Yyyyyyup

TA: Art11f11c11al 11ntell11gence, ‘the the0ry and devel0pment 0f c0mputer 2y2tem2 able t0 perf0rm ta2k2 that n0rmally requ11re tr0ll 11ntell11gence 2uch a2 v112ual percept110n, 2peech rec0gn11t110n, dec112110n-mak11ng, and tran2lat110n between language2.’

TA: An A11 2uch a2 my2elf wa2 de211gned a2 m0re 0f an aut0 re2p0nder f0r when my creat0r wa2 11nact11ve 0r needed me t0 w0rk 11n h112 2tead. 11’m de211gned to 11m11tate my creat0r2 typ11ng 2tyle, t0ne, cadence, per20nal11ty, and att11tude ba2ed 0n c0nf11rmed neru0l0g11cal re2p0n2e2 w11th 0nly a 2l11ght marg11n 0f flaw already taken 11nt0 c0n211derat110n blah blah blah

The shades of yellow from his text and this...AI’s, were strikingly similar to the burn of the helmet plugged into his husktop. The near indistinguishable colors of just the texts themselves, was making it hard to tell what typing was his and what was the others. The throbbing in his head was getting worse and worse the longer he stared at the lines of words. He didn't want to blame all his confusion on it, but certainly the brightness wasn't helping.

It...Just...Something wasn’t clicking. Something wasn’t there. 

Like a piece of a code was just missing, resulting in an entire mental failure. 

The tilt of his head caused strands of stringy black hair to fall into his perplexed features. 

TA: And, wh0 exactly is this creator 0f yours?

TA: Y0u haven’t f11gured 11t 0ut yet? 00p2, 11 gue22 11 never d11d really 11ntr0duce my2elf

TA: 1’ll pretend 11 d0n’t already kn0w y0ur name and everyth11ng el2e ab0ut y0u f0r the 2ake 0f plea2antr11e2

TA: 20 h11 n11ce t0 meet y0u 2trange tr0ll, 11’m a dupl11cate AR 0f and f0r M11tuna Capt0r

Ding ding ding. 

The missing piece to the puzzle at last. 

His dancestor. 

The aspect of clones, dancestors, ancestors, etcetera wasn’t unfamiliar to him. He had even bumped into his and other broodmates of his dancestors. A few of their elder copies and duplicates as well. It was common practice to accept the madness of their bloodlines. But he didn’t imagine that with his own dancestor, Mituna’s, state, that he would be able to come up with something so elaborate.

If what he was hearing was right, he was communicating with a fully functional AI. 

Mituna, to say the least, shouldn’t be able to do this. 

The few times he had encountered the elder troll, he could barely walk in a straight line and couldn’t even talk coherently. But according to this thing, the Mituna but Not Mituna duplicate AI entity thing, Mituna had crafted it. Well, despite any of the AI's claims of perfect duplication.

He was nearly jealous at this realization. 

The ache that had been steadily growing throughout the endeavor had furthered into a migraine that crept along his skull and down his neck.

Shit. 

A sharp racing pain suddenly burst along his palm, and with a hiss Sollux let the empty can he had been unintentionally clutching clatter to the floor.  Rivulets of gold trickled from small open wounds along his palm. 

With a grimace, he shoved the injured hand under his shirt and tightly fisted it against the pain, before using his other hand to wrap the black cloth at least somewhat around the fist. He really needed to get it cleaned. Who knows how long that drink had been sitting there, and with the condition of his block, any kind of disease or bacteria could be lurking on the metal. 

Yeah he really had to clean. 

Okay. It’s fine. 

First things first would be taking care of his bleeding hand, and next was to hopefully get some answers. 

So turning down the brightness to his husktop and nearly shutting it, after freeing his non injured hand, Sollux rose carefully from his chair and headed to deal with the most imminent problem at hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> //OwO I'm an adult I swear.


End file.
